The Interweb. Not only does it makes our work lives a nonstop cycle of efficiency, it keeps upping the ante for our life-lives as well. For example, with romance. The proposals become ever more epic. The wedding invites need directors and producers. And a simple love letter to a girlfriend who's moved across the country becomes a digital missive set to music and reliant on the tweets of strangers for crowd-sourced delivery.

We were alerted to Walter C. May's viral love letter, "I Hope This Gets to You," yesterday through the random tweet of someone we knew in high school. Interest piqued, we got in touch with May, who directs and edits commercials, and...this is exactly how he'd hoped his plan would work, it turns out.

Why a "digital love letter"?
My girlfriend got into an MBA program at Duke -- she grew up in L.A., and I work in L.A. -- so she's away for two years. It got me to thinking about how long distance isn't really long distance anymore. It seems like we're far apart, but we're living in a very different world these days, and we can feel close without having to be close every day. I wanted to show how we try to make the world a little smaller.

How did you put the video together?
I got together with my roommates, who are all in a band called The Daylights. I helped write the lyrics. They are tremendous songwriters.

I wanted it to be simple, something really anyone could have done. We shot the video in my buddy's garage on a Canon 5D one Sunday afternoon, and I spent maybe $100 in total, buying black bedsheets and stuff. I didn't want to go overboard, to show that the thought really does count.

Are you worried you'll spill the beans or she'll hear about it from your mutual friends?
I had to block her from my Twitter. She studies so much she doesn't check it a lot, so hopefully she won't notice for a while. She was also here last weekend and that was really hard. But our friends and her friends at school have all been given the gag order, so it really has to be some random way she's going to see it.

How far has it gotten?
I posted it yesterday on YouTube. Today I woke up and it was at 20,000 views.

And...what do you think will happen when she sees it?
I'm sure I'll get a phone call; hopefully it will be a nice Christmasy surprise.